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The Off Topic Topic

Started by Korea, March 10, 2009, 06:24:26 AM

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Savonarola

Today I learned that the French word for lawyer (avocat) is also the French word for avocado.  I'm not sure, but I think this may reveal a profound truth about French civilization.
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

Josquius

They're expensive and rotten inside half the time.
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Sheilbh

Let's bomb Russia!

Oexmelin

Quote from: Savonarola on September 07, 2021, 05:23:02 PM
Today I learned that the French word for lawyer (avocat) is also the French word for avocado.  I'm not sure, but I think this may reveal a profound truth about French civilization.

(Historically borrowed from Spanish - the nahuatl ahuacatl sounded close to the existing word for lawyer, avocado.)
Que le grand cric me croque !

DGuller

In Russian it's advocat.  I wonder where the d went for the French.

HVC

advogado/advogada is Portuguese for lawyer too. Surprised Russian is similar. Does Russian have a lot of Latin words?
Being lazy is bad; unless you still get what you want, then it's called "patience".
Hubris must be punished. Severely.

HVC

Quote from: Oexmelin on September 07, 2021, 06:22:23 PM
Quote from: Savonarola on September 07, 2021, 05:23:02 PM
Today I learned that the French word for lawyer (avocat) is also the French word for avocado.  I'm not sure, but I think this may reveal a profound truth about French civilization.

(Historically borrowed from Spanish - the nahuatl ahuacatl sounded close to the existing word for lawyer, avocado.)

I though palta was the Spanish word for avocado?
Being lazy is bad; unless you still get what you want, then it's called "patience".
Hubris must be punished. Severely.

Oexmelin

Palta is from quechua, IIRC - so mostly used in South America.
Que le grand cric me croque !

HVC

That makes sense. I learned the word from a Colombian.
Being lazy is bad; unless you still get what you want, then it's called "patience".
Hubris must be punished. Severely.

DGuller

#82149
Quote from: HVC on September 07, 2021, 06:33:05 PM
advogado/advogada is Portuguese for lawyer too. Surprised Russian is similar. Does Russian have a lot of Latin words?
It has a fair amount of words with Latin roots, and it also borrowed a lot of foreign words (usually French).  If a concept was introduced to Russia in the last few centuries, it probably has a foreign name for it.

Savonarola

Quote from: HVC on September 07, 2021, 06:42:40 PM
That makes sense. I learned the word from a Colombian.

"Aguacate" was the term they used in Caribbean Colombia; but that's a long way from the regions where they speak Quechua.  I believe aguacate is the most common term in Spanish.

Just out of curiosity is "Aguacates" slang for "Testicles" in European Spanish, or is that limited to the New World?
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

Richard Hakluyt

#82151
Quote from: DGuller on September 07, 2021, 06:51:36 PM
Quote from: HVC on September 07, 2021, 06:33:05 PM
advogado/advogada is Portuguese for lawyer too. Surprised Russian is similar. Does Russian have a lot of Latin words?
It has a fair amount of words with Latin roots, and it also borrowed a lot of foreign words (usually French).  If a concept was introduced to Russia in the last few centuries, it probably has a foreign name for it.

Yeah, it is really noticeable that Russian uses a lot of foreign words for the more complicated/modern subjects; perhaps a consequence of being behind the curve for several centuries  :hmm:

Though English also borrows words at a formidable rate or forms new ones from Greek/Latin roots.......maybe Russian is not so different.

The Larch

Quote from: Savonarola on September 07, 2021, 07:27:38 PM
Quote from: HVC on September 07, 2021, 06:42:40 PM
That makes sense. I learned the word from a Colombian.

"Aguacate" was the term they used in Caribbean Colombia; but that's a long way from the regions where they speak Quechua.  I believe aguacate is the most common term in Spanish.

Just out of curiosity is "Aguacates" slang for "Testicles" in European Spanish, or is that limited to the New World?

"Aguacate" is how it's said in Spain as well, never ever heard "Palta" in my whole life.

Food slang for testicles over here is "eggs" rather than avocados. Non food related slang is "balls" instead.

Syt

#82153
Quote from: Richard Hakluyt on September 08, 2021, 01:17:20 AM
Quote from: DGuller on September 07, 2021, 06:51:36 PM
Quote from: HVC on September 07, 2021, 06:33:05 PM
advogado/advogada is Portuguese for lawyer too. Surprised Russian is similar. Does Russian have a lot of Latin words?
It has a fair amount of words with Latin roots, and it also borrowed a lot of foreign words (usually French).  If a concept was introduced to Russia in the last few centuries, it probably has a foreign name for it.

Yeah, it is really noticeable that Russian uses a lot of foreign words for the more complicated/modern subjects; perhaps a consequence of being behind the curve for several centuries  :hmm:

There's a lot of German loan words in Russian, like "Maßstab" (масшта́б) for map scale, "Platzkarte" (плацка́рта), "Zifferblatt" (циферблат), "Butterbrot" (бутерброд) - my favorite :D , "Kartoffel" (карто́фель), "Buchhalter" (Бухгалтер). Lots of these came from Germans working in administration, and later engineering.

P.S.: Advokat also means lawyer in German, but it's an old fashioned word at this point. We also have the Winkeladvokat (Winkel most likely in the sense of working in a hidden crook) for a lawyer who doesn't know his trade or uses questionable methods.
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

celedhring

Quote from: Savonarola on September 07, 2021, 05:23:02 PM
Today I learned that the French word for lawyer (avocat) is also the French word for avocado.  I'm not sure, but I think this may reveal a profound truth about French civilization.

They're pretty close in Catalan (advocat/alvocat) and many people mix up both words. The result is that you see many fruit stores with signs selling lawyers.